Computing At School

When we asked CAS members to tell us how students are coping with accessing online learning, many of you responded to our survey.

Primary school and secondary school teachers who described the very mixed picture facing teachers and students during lockdown.

Those responses build a snapshot of the issues that students and staff face in order to learn online effectively.

Although students will be returning to schools in September, it’s likely that online learning will continue to play a key role. Our survey makes it clear that there’s a huge variation in students’ ability to access digital learning.

We had a diverse response from many schools, and some were able to address the issues quickly.

Nicholas Hughes who teaches at Latymer Prep School, Hammersmith, told us;

“We spoke to all of our parents before the lockdown happened to double check who had devices home and who did not. We managed to provide devices from school supply in order to make sure that all children had a device at school that would enable them to access the remote learning being provided.”

However for many schools the situation was clearly challenging and more support is needed.

Julia Adamson, Director of Education at BCS said;

“We need learners to have adequate access to good quality connectivity and a device, as well as a safe, secure and structured platform with quality learning activities. And we need teachers to have all those things too, as well as the training and support to deliver quality learning outcomes for every learner.”

We’re grateful to everyone who took part – and know this is an issue which is likely to continue to be important to all of us moving forward.

Key findings

52% of responses were from primary school teachers, 48% from secondary school teachers
79% were told by students that they couldn’t access remote learning due to issues with home internet access59% of those students said this was because of a combination of lack of access to devices and poor broadband, with 35% reporting a lack of access to devices
29% of teachers reported students relying on 4G data plans to access the internet, and of those that do 77% said that this created problems such as insufficient monthly data
Most students had sufficient digital skills, however only 21% of responders said that most parents/guardians had sufficient skills to be able to help their students
Overall, 68% said their school was able to deliver remote learning to all students.

When asked what help would be useful - teachers advised that they needed more technology and adequate funding including up-to-date equipment such as iPads and laptops as well as more staff training, particularly on delivery platforms.

CAS teachers told us how they’d used a variety of approaches to deliver learning during lockdown.

One school told us over 70% of content has been delivered live and online, others relied on a mixture of email lessons, pdfs and printed paper packs for collection. Teachers have also been keeping in touch using telephone conferencing and one-to-one tutoring for the GCSE group

Another teacher said that paper resources still had a key role to play;

“We are setting work, but it has to be as a pdf document that could be answered on paper - not ideal for CS, and this has meant a pause on the delivery of the curriculum.”

Lack of devices and internet access is a real challenge for many;

“Those not able to access remote learning are far more reliant on phone calls from school to keep in touch. It’s far more difficult to know how much students are doing if they can't access remote learning. “

“Lack of access has been highlighted by this covid crisis, showing a wide digital divide in some households”

Some schools were more prepared than others;

“SLT has resisted a move to google classrooms, as a result, we don't have an integrated way to deliver lessons remotely. They are wary of the safeguarding implications of delivering live lessons through and also don't want a proliferation of external services and so have told staff not to join any new platforms.

“We spoke to all of our parents before the lockdown happened to double check who had devices at home and who did not. We managed to provide devices from school supply in order to make sure that all children had a device at school that would enable them to access the remote learning being provided.”

“Some families have just one phone between them to access the internet. Many more families only have one internet device which is used by the adult/s for home working, leading to asynchronous or no access by pupils to the online resources. Greater access to pre-printed materials and materials downloaded by parents has helped alleviate the situation, although there are some who do not have printers to print off resources themselves. “

“There is a reluctance to admit to having trouble accessing the internet from home. At the beginning of the year I did a straw poll in the class, no one admitted not having the necessary IT at home. In reality about 5% don't. Also, it is used as an excuse.”

Computer science teachers have played a key role in supporting their colleagues;

“We're using Microsoft Teams. The only teachers who were confident with using Teams were the computing faculty, so our faculty had an enormous job training all staff (teachers, SLT and TAs) on how to use Teams prior to the lockdown. Now that we are working at home, we continue to receive emails from staff with questions on how to use Teams. We are also training teachers to record their voice on PowerPoint and to use recording software such as OBX. It's been a steep learning curve for non-IT specialists.”

“Staff confidence and training is one issue, but this is exacerbated by lack of resources. For example, we are using Seesaw but the iOS that we can run is now no longer supported by Seesaw!

The way forward

Finding solutions to the digital divide is not easy. We know that CAS members have been working hard to try to find imaginative ways to ensure everyone has access to learning. We’d love to hear more about what your school is doing, how your students are coping and how we should go forward in the new term.

Share your thoughts and ideas on our CAS forum, where we’re continuing the discussion.